Chinese box office set to break $2 billion in 2011 (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? The Chinese box office is on track to break the U.S. equivalent of $2 billion by the end of the year, according to a recent report from the country's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

Additionally, more than 500 feature films were produced in China in 2011. Chinese releases totaled 526, compared with 456 in 2009. And China added an average of eight new screens per day this year. There are now more than 9,000 screens in China, compared with 6,200 in 2010.

As of December 15, total box-office earnings had totaled more than 12 billion yuan, the reports says. That figure which equates to roughly $1.89 billion U.S. dollars.

The $2 billion mark is expected to be surpassed thanks to the recent openings of the Christian Bale war epic "The Flowers of War" and the Jet Li martial-arts film "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate." Zhang Yimou's "The Flowers of War" has the biggest production budget ever for a film made in China: $94 million.

Last year, the total box-office gross in China was $1.61 billion -- an increase of more than 60 percent over the previous year's figure. That made China the third-largest global box-office market, behind only the U.S. and Japan. The Japanese box office grossed $2.26 billion in 2010.

China's booming box office contrasts sharply with the U.S. results. As of Sunday, total North American ticket sells stood at $9.64 billion, which is short of the $10.58 billion mark that was set in 2010.

China is also the fastest-growing country in the global IMAX business, according to a China Film Industry Report. China was expected to have 48 IMAX theaters by mid-year and 2,500 3D screens by the end of 2011.

China's film-industry trends contradict the country's broader economic woes. According to Reuters, the first quarter is expected to be especially tough because of slow European and U.S. demand.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/enindustry/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111221/media_nm/us_boxoffice_china

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Albania's self-styled King Leka dies at 72 (AP)

TIRANA, Albania ? Leka Zogu, whose father served as Albania's king until it was occupied by fascist Italy, and who twice returned home from exile to try to claim the throne himself, died Wednesday, his family said. He was 72.

Zogu died of a heart attack at the Mother Teresa Hospital in Tirana, said the family spokeswoman, Julinda Kamberi.

Zogu's father, King Ahmet Zogu, was this small Balkan country's first and only post-independence monarch, reigning from 1928 to 1939, when he fled after Albania was occupied by Italian forces.

The king died in France in 1961 and is buried at the Thiais Cemetery near Paris, but the exiled royal family always insisted that he was the country's legitimate ruler.

Born just two days before Albania was occupied in 1939, Leka Zogu spent most of his life in exile in Europe and Africa while his country was ruled by Communists who abolished the monarchy in 1946 and banned contact with the outside world.

After Albania's Communist regime fell in 1990, he made two disastrous attempts to return home ? being thrown out during the first in 1993 and charged with leading an armed uprising during the second in 1997.

The six-foot, five-inch (2-meter) tall Leka Zogu finally settled in Albania in 2002, leading a quiet life with his Australian wife and son but never relinquishing his claim to the throne. The royal family's official website listed his interests as "arms, shooting, reading and history."

While living in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1999, he was arrested ? along with four of his bodyguards ? for illegal possession of weapons and held in police custody for a week before being released on bail.

When he returned to Albania in June 2002, he brought with him 11 cases of automatic weapons, grenades and hunting arms, which authorities promptly seized. But the family got the weapons back six years later after Albania's government deemed them items of cultural heritage.

Zogu was the only son of King Ahmet Zogu, a Muslim chieftain who proclaimed himself Albania's monarch in 1928 and ruled for 11 years during a time that many older Albanians now remember as prosperous and stable.

The second attempt by the monarch's son to return to Albania in 1997 came amid the anarchy that followed the collapse of shady investment schemes that cost many Albanians their life savings.

Brandishing an Uzi submachine gun and a pistol, and clad in camouflage fatigues, he led a crowd of armed protesters outside the main elections building, claiming the results of a national vote had been manipulated. After a shootout with police, in which one protester was killed and several wounded, Leka Zogu fled Albania on a private jet.

Two years later a Tirana court sentenced him in absentia to three years in prison on charges of organizing the armed uprising. An appeals court later reduced the charge to illegal firearms possession, and in 2002 Albania's president granted the self-proclaimed king amnesty.

His family was given back some of its old royal properties and granted diplomatic passports. Leka Zogu's son has since served as an adviser to several Albanian governments. Today, a small royalist party is allied to the governing Democratic Party's coalition of Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha.

Two years ago, Albania's government pledged to bring home from Paris the late king's remains, calling the monarch "one of the greatest, most distinguished personalities with a major contribution to the history of the Albanian nation."

That could be done next year when Albania celebrates the 100th anniversary of its independence.

On Wednesday, Albanian President Bamir Topi, Prime Minister Berisha and political parties sent condolences to Leka Zogu and his family.

"His active efforts and role to topple the communist system and, during transition, to heighten Albania's national values and promote the integrating process remain alive in the nation's memory," Topi said.

Berisha honored Leka Zogu by referring to him with the royal title he had always wanted.

The prime minister declared Saturday a day of national mourning and said Albania "will respect King Leka I with all the attributes of a king not in office."

Describing him as "one of the greatest personalities of (Albania's) political history," Berisha also questioned the result of a 1997 referendum that upheld the abolition of the monarchy. "The referendum was held under the flares of a communist rebellion and cannot be considered a closed issue," he said during a Cabinet meeting.

Zogu was educated in Egypt, Switzerland and France and graduated from the military academy of Sandhurst, England. He studied economics and political science at the Sorbonne, France, and spoke English, Spanish, French, German, Arabic, Portuguese and Italian.

In 1975, he married Australian-born Susan Cullen-Ward, who died in 2004. Zogu's Hungarian mother, Queen Geraldina, died in 2002.

Zogu is survived by his son, Leka II.

___

Online: http://www.albanianroyalcourt.al

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111130/ap_on_re_eu/eu_obit_albania_king_leka_i_zogu

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White House tells EU to take decisive action on debt (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? U.S. President Barack Obama pressed European Union officials on Monday to act quickly and decisively to resolve their sovereign debt crisis, which the White House said was weighing on the American economy.

Obama has been in regular telephone contact with German President Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other European leaders as debt woes have piled up in Greece, Italy and Spain, hurting stock markets and raising doubts about U.S. exports and growth.

Monday's meeting with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso - an annual summit between leaders from Washington and Brussels - gave Obama a chance to ratchet up pressure on EU officials to act decisively to prevent further contagion.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and top White House advisers were taking part in the closed-door talks. They did not include Merkel, Sarkozy and other European heads of state who need to make tough decisions to salvage the euro zone.

"The president will reflect in his conversations in the meeting today ... that Europe needs to take decisive action, conclusive action to handle this problem, and that it has the capacity to do so," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

"The events in Europe obviously have an impact on our economy. It's created a headwind for much of the year ... and continues to create that headwind," he told reporters.

Van Rompuy and Barroso wield influence as heads of key EU institutions at the heart of efforts to address the crisis, which has thrown the future of the 17-nation currency bloc into doubt at a moment of weakness for the global economy.

Obama, Van Rompuy and Barroso will make remarks after their meeting concludes at the White House on Monday.

The U.S. president has previously said that calming markets would require "some tough decisions" in Europe but not spelled out precisely what those may entail. Some in Washington believe the European Central Bank could be more active in the crisis, though that is an unpopular view across the Atlantic.

CONTAGION FEARS

Avoiding contagion from Europe is critical for Obama, whose re-election prospects next November hinge on his ability to shield the American economy from another downturn and bring down the unemployment rate of 9 percent.

Barroso and Van Rompuy were set to suggest ways to boost trade and investment across the Atlantic, including efforts to support businesses developing electric cars, smart grids and nanotechnology through less red tape and lower tariffs.

Companies including Microsoft, Pfizer, Deutsche Bank and Coca-Cola have argued there were important opportunities to be tapped across the Atlantic even if the U.S. and European economies were growing slowly.

"The United States and Europe remain at the heart of the world economy, each other's most important market for goods, services, capital and ideas," the Transatlantic Business Council, whose other members include Unilever, Intel, Siemens and Ford, said in a letter released ahead of Monday's meeting.

In spite of the turmoil in Europe, U.S. exports to the EU remained strong in the first nine months of 2011, up about 15 percent from the same period last year, according to U.S. data released this month.

While economic worries will dominate their meeting, Obama, Barroso and Van Rompuy are also set to discuss concerns about Iran's pursuit of nuclear materials and Syria's crackdown on protesters as well as violent flare-ups in the Balkans.

Catherine Ashton, the EU's top foreign policy official, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are also taking part in the talks that come on the heels of new Arab League and European Union sanctions on Damascus.

The EU leaders are likely to be nudged to seek stronger sanctions against Iran, given Europe now has more commercial and energy ties with the country than the United States does.

(Additional reporting by Doug Palmer, Steve Holland and Caren Bohan in Washington and Luke Baker in Brussels; Editing by Paul Simao)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111128/pl_nm/us_usa_europe_obama

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